Blood-tossing protester gets 2 months in prison

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin ^ | Saturday, April 19, 2003 | Unattributed

[Ipse Dixit]

SANTA BARBARA: An anti-war protester who threw his own blood at the entrance sign at Vandenberg Air Force Base was sentenced to two months in federal prison.

Dennis Apel, 52, of Guadalupe, was sentenced Friday in federal court. A probation report had suggested a six-month jail term, saying his conduct "is severely aggravated by current affairs and cannot be tolerated by a civil society."

He also was fined $50, which Apel said he would refuse to pay, although failure to do so could carry a one-year jail term.

Apel was arrested March 14 after he threw four ounces of his blood across the metal sign in front of the base. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of vandalism and trespassing.

Apel read a statement to the court, saying he threw his blood as a last resort after rallies, prayer and calls to elected officials had failed.

"I was determined that not one U.S. or Iraqi soldier or Iraqi citizen would lose their life without my utmost effort to prevent it," he said.

Federal prosecutor Sharon McCaslin said that no one in the courtroom would cheer the violence of war but she called his act "grandstanding."

[Ipse Dixit]

Hmmm. Probation report suggests six-month sentence and judge levies two-month sentence. Must be a Carter appointee.

[Captainpaintball]

Has this drama queen been tested for AIDS?

[Dr Warmoose]

Isn't there some sort of Federal crime against illegal disposal of medical waste? If anyone else "polluted" in this manner, there would be more than just $50 in fines.

[Wormwood]

It's about time some of these 'civil disobediance' losers hit the greybar.

This scumbag is hardly Henry David Thoreau.

[Fixit]

Do you think the Ithaca blood throwers will get any time?

[GnuHere]

Next time make it a gallon, buddy, and we won't have to bother with you again.

[Bullish]

He must just feel terrible now that the Iraqis are liberated. Since all his heart-felt hatred of Bush convinced him he was doing the moral, nobel thing.

Bush is now a hero, and he is still just a moron.

[Servant of the Nine]

This is a biohazard.
Why wasn't it a felony?

So9

[Wilhelm Tell]

What about the rivers of innocent blood Saddam had spilled from his people (and the Iranians, and the Kuwaitis) over the years? The leftists are mostly silent about this.

[Sam Cree]

"What about the rivers of innocent blood Saddam had spilled from his people (and the Iranians, and the Kuwaitis) over the years? The leftists are mostly silent about this."

They are silent about it. Kind of lets you know that their real agenda is not about human suffering, as they would like us to believe.